it was over early

I dont know why but that ome "catch" that turned about to be a drop bugged the crap out of me.

I mean the guy knew it wasnt a catch so he got up and did this fist bump thing which looked to be like a "hurry up and run the play so they cant review" sign, which I believe they did do just that. The SF coach should have suspected something was up

The refs in the AFC game sucked big time

The 49ers QB was playing in his 4th game. He took something like 3 snaps before he was forced into the starting role.
The backup who got concussed had this incident occur after about one quarter of offense. The 17 games meant nothing to him. He never played.
Kelsey didn't play every game this year. He played 16. And, McCaffrey, who never plays a full season, plated this game healthy.
While I agree injuries made the games far less compelling, I'm not sure how it connects to the 17 game season.
And I agree with Hugh that the refereeing in the AFC game was embarrassingly bad.

Seems simple to me. NFL has become a low quality product with more quantity. Like everything else.